Fire-escape



N. PETERS. PHOTO-UTHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON. D C

A w ma L UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEIcE.

LOUIS KNOCKE, 0F DAVENPORT, IOIVA.

FIRE-ESCAPE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 28,380, dated May 22, 1860.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Louis KNOGKE, of Davenport, in the county of Scottand State of Iowa, have invented a new and useful Improvement inFire-Escapes; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full,clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which--Figure l, represents a vertical longitudinal section, and Fig. L2, avertical cross sect-ion of the machine, and Fig. 3, a section of adetached portion of it.

Similar letters of reference, in each of the several figures indicatecorresponding parts.

The nature of my invention consists, 1st, in the combination andarrangement of a movable platform with hinged sides, a hinged andjointed mast, carriage, staples and anchor-bars. The object of thiscombi nation of a carriage with a platform which can be raised andlowered on a mast attached to the carriage, is to construct a machineadapted to purposes of building, raising and lowering weights,extinguishing fires &c.

It consists, 2nd, in combining a movable platform, with hinged sideswhich consist of hinged railings, a hinged bottom and a ladder ashereafter to be described, for the purpose of being used either as aladder or a gangway to establish communication between the platform andthe various stories of a building near which the machine is placed.

It consists, 8rd, in combining the carriage with tapering cross beams,staples and anchor beams, for the purpose of steadying the machine whenin use for the abovementioned purposes.

To enable others skilled in the art, to make and use my invention, Iwill proceed to describe its construction and operation.

The body c, of the carriage rests upon wheels 7x', and two beams a, (theupper surface of which taper toward both sides of the carriage, as seenat n', n', Fig. 2) are fastened across the carriage. Staples y, areattached to the sloping or tapering surface of the cross beams a, andthe tapering ends of anchor-beams a2, may be inserted into said staplesso that the straight sides of the anchor beams will come to rest againstthe sloping surfaces a, n', as seen in Fig. 2. In this position of thecross beams, their outer ends bear on the ground and thus greatsteadiness is given to the carriage while the machine is being used forthe purposes of building, raising weights, extinguishing fires &c.

Then the machine is being moved to or from its place of destination, theanchor beams are held in stirrups y, attached to the body of thecarriage, so as to be out of the way.

A heavy f ame-work consisting of two upright timbers r, s, rises fromthe center of the carriage, the two timbers being connected by twocross-bars o, o.

The lower portion p, of a mast p, g, is hinged between the two timbersr, s, by means of a fulcrum pin 0, passing through the timbers and themast.

lhen the carriage is under way, the portion p, of the mast is turneddown, its outer end resting on a support a', attached to the carriage asshown by red lines in Fig. l, and the upper portion g, of the mast isstowed away on the carriage.

Then the carriage has arrived at its place of destination, the beveledend of the upper part g, of the mast is inserted into the correspondingslot in the upper end of the part y), of the mast, rings t, (two ofwhich are attached to p, and one to 70,) serving to hold the two partsof the masts together at their joint. The mast is then elevated into avertical position (as represented by black lines in Figs. l and 2) byturning it 0n the fulcrum-pin o. This is done by pulling at the outerend of a rope which passes around a roller z", whose bearings are in thetimbers r, s. The inner end of the rope is fastened to the lower end ofthe part p, of the mast.

Then the mast has been raised into a vertical position, a pin n, isinserted through holes in the timbers r, s, and a. hole near the lowerend of p. Thus the mast is confined in its vertical position.

A platform a, is made with a hole in the center to accommodate the mastand timbers f1', s. The platform is provided with two stationary sidesand two sides c, cl, e, f, hinged to the platform at 0, 0. These hingedsides consist of a ladder c, to the sides of which, railings d, e, arehinged at CZ', and c, and a bottom f, is also hinged to one side of thelatter, as seen at f, Fig. 3, which represents a cross section of one ofthe hinged sides of the platform, with the bottom f, closed down uponthe ladder and the two railings turned up. Two ropes Z, la, are

fastened to the sides b, of the platform, as seen at mi m. l

The ropes Z, la, pass over pulleyset, f'at the top of the mast p, g5 anddown alongside of the mast, through the hole in the center of theplatform and over rollers L, g.- The ends of the ropes wind around aoapstan 71,.' It will be seen that on turning the capstan one way or theother, the platform will be either raised or lowered.

When the platform has been raised to the proper height, as indicated byred linesin Fig. 2, the hinged side of the platform nearest tothe.buildingcan be turned down so as to be horizontal or nearly so, thehooked end g, of the hinged side resting on or being driven into awindow sill. The railings d, e, are then turned up and persons can walkand goods, building materials &c. be passed over the bottom f, from thehouse onto the plateform, and vice versa.

Ropes fw, fw, fastened to the outer end of the hinged side can be tiedto the rings m, to which the ropes Z, la, are attached (as seen in redlines in Fig. 2) so as to prevent the gangway or bridge (found by thehinged side of the platform) from dropping down in case the hooked endg, of the gangway should accidentally slip 0E its point of support.

If the part of the building (which it 1s desired to place intocommunication with the platform) is somewhat higher than the mast, thebottom f, of the hinged side of the platform, can be turned up so as toexpose the'ladder c, underneath. The hinged side can then be placed inan inclined position, the upper end leaning against the point of thebuilding to be reached, and persons can pass up and down the ladder o.

It will be understoodv without further eX- pla'nation7 that this machinewill be highly useful in cases of fire for the purpose of saving humanlife, and also valuable goods which would be liable to be injured ordestroyed by being thrown out of the window.

That I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The combination and arrangement of a movable platform a, with hingedsides 0, f, d, e, a hinged and jointed mast p, g, carriage c, c, staplesy, and anchor bars m, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. Combining a movable platform, with hinged sides which consist ofhinged railings 0l, e, a hinged bottom f, and a ladder 0, substantiallyas and for the purposes set forth.

3. Combining the carriage'c, lo', with tapering cross beams n, staplesy, and anchor beams substantially as and for the pur-f Witnesses:

R. W. FENwIcK, GOODWIN Y. AT LEE.

